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Monday, 12 October 2009

“Obese” Four Month Old Denied Insurance

From Angry Gray Rainbows. This is just too ridiculous not to document.

“Obese” Four Month Old Denied Insurance

It’s so infuriating that I’m going to have to do some deep breathing before I can go find a pic to go with this one…

By the numbers, Alex is in the 99th percentile for height and weight for babies his age. Insurers don’t take babies above the 95th percentile, no matter how healthy they are otherwise.

“I could understand if we could control what he’s eating. But he’s 4 months old. He’s breast-feeding. We can’t put him on the Atkins diet or on a treadmill,” joked his frustrated father, Bernie Lange, a part-time news anchor at KKCO-TV in Grand Junction. “There is just something absurd about denying an infant.”

Bernie and Kelli Lange tried to get insurance for their growing family with Rocky Mountain Health Plans when their current insurer raised their rates 40 percent after Alex was born. They filled out the paperwork and awaited approval, figuring their family is young and healthy. But the broker who was helping them find new insurance called Thursday with news that shocked them.

” ‘Your baby is too fat,’ she told me,” Bernie said.

Cuz, of course, height/weight charts (especially for children – and especially ESPECIALLY for babies) are oh so accurate and predictive of health. One sec while I beat my head against the wall…

And, ya know, BMI is like the most accurate tool ever made – ESPECIALLY for children and ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY ESPECIIIIIIIIAAAAAAALLLLLLYYYYYYY for infants.

But, let’s forget about all that. What the heck kinda health care system denies four month olds anyway? Does that baby deserve less care (or even no care) because he hasn’t taken up his own personal responsibility to not be so fat? What is up with infants these days??!! Like… ya know… all they do is eat and sleep and OMG BABY DEATH FAT!!! Someone needs to put that kid on a treadmill. Do they make diet breast milk these days?

Hahahahaha… idiots…

Deep breaths…

Thanks to my hubby for finding this one. To read the full version of the insanity, click here.

Quotes

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the same sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. -H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Scars

We who have lost have no physical sign, no outward scar that says, 'Look, oh look, can you not see? I have lost so much.' The scars are inside. Our drug-riddled, ill, tattooed or emaciated [or obese*] bodies become our scars; our ineptitude at completing goals or overcoming addictions, our tendency to sit in support groups or slice at our skin or fail at life - these are our ways of showing our loss.
-- Ingrid Poulson, "Rise"
* my addition